Casalmaggiore Altarpiece
The Casalmaggiore Altarpiece is a 1540 oil on panel painting by Parmigianino, now in the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden, which acquired it from the Este collection in 1746.[1]
It is named after Casalmaggiore, whither the artist had fled from Parma after imprisonment for non-compliance by the priors of Santa Maria della Steccata and where he spent five months before dying of a fever.[2] It was commissioned for the church of Santo Stefano (now the Duomo) in the town and in 1846 Mortara recorded a tradition that the commissioner was Matteo Cavalli and that Cavalli is shown resting his head on Saint Stephen's leg in the bottom right-hand corner of the work. A preparatory study survives in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle,[3] along with a drawing of the Madonna and Child for the work in the Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe in Florence.[4]
The work remained in Santo Stefano for at least a century before the local community allowed it to be moved to the Galleria Estense in Modena, hoping this would win the Este family over to making the church a collegiate one - Correggio's Casalmaggiore Madonna was also given up on similar grounds. This transaction occurred during Francesco I d'Este's temporary occupation of the town in 1647 during his war with Spain, though its citizens had first been forewarned of the work's interest to collectors by a 1602 visit from Palmerio Celestani, an intermediary for Ferdinando Gonzaga - a letter dated 14 February 1602 states Celestani met the church's priest, who was willing to sell the work, though for an unknown reason the sale was not completed.[5]
References
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- Baptism of Christ (c. 1519)
- Bardi Altarpiece (c. 1521)
- Adoration of the Shepherds (c. 1521–1522)
- Nativity (c. 1521–1522)
- The Circumcision (c. 1523)
- Saint Barbara (c. 1523)
- Female Martyr with Two Angels (c. 1523–1524)
- Portrait of Galeazzo Sanvitale (1524)
- Portrait of Lorenzo Cybo (1524)
- Sanvitale Madonna and Child (1524; fragment)
- Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine (Parma; c. 1524)
- Portrait of a Collector (c. 1524)
- Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror (c. 1524)
- Holy Family with Angels (c. 1524)
- Doria Madonna (c. 1525)
- Nativity with Angels (c. 1525)
- Vision of Saint Jerome (1526–1527)
- The Conversion of St Paul (1527)
- Virgin and Child (c. 1527–1528)
- Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist (c. 1528)
- Saint Roch (c. 1528)
- Adoration of the Magi (c. 1529)
- Man Holding a Book (c. 1529)
- Kedleston Madonna (c. 1529)
- Santa Margherita Madonna (1529–1530)
- Madonna of the Rose (1530)
- Boy with a Finger in His Mouth (c. 1530)
- Madonna and Child with Saint Zechariah (c. 1530–1533)
- Turkish Slave (1533)
- Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine (London; c. 1529)
- Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine (Louvre; c. 1529)
- Portrait of a Man (c. 1530)
- Portrait of Cecilia Gozzadini (c. 1530)
- Antea (c. 1535)
- Cupid Making His Bow (c. 1533–1535)
- Portrait of Pier Maria Rossi di San Secondo (c. 1535–1538)
- Madonna with the Long Neck (c. 1535–1540)
- Portrait of Camilla Gonzaga and Her Three Sons (c. 1539–1540; disputed)
- Lucretia (1540)
- Casalmaggiore Altarpiece (1540)
- Portrait of a Man in a Red Beret (c. 1540; disputed)